Meanwhile his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen said "everyone is a bit surprised" by the move, and the Ferrari president, Luca di Montezemolo, hinted that he would really be running the team when he promised to be more involved in order to help Mattiacci, the former president and CEO of Ferrari North America.

Alonso said that he had not even talked to Mattiacci. "I didn't have a chance. I don't know if he is coming here [China], I guess so," he said. "It will be a good time to welcome him and I have really not much to say.

"I drive the car and hopefully he will be good enough to recognise what are the weak areas of the team, what are the strong areas of the team, and hopefully can improve them. We need to give him time, to see how he settles."

Ferrari have failed to win a single podium place in the first three races of the season. "I think we need to be honest with our situation – it's not where we want to be," admitted Alonso with a shrug. "I think there is a lot of room to improve. We need to become better in all the areas of the car. There is a long way to go."

Alonso was echoing the sentiments of Raikkonen who, when asked in Bahrain earlier this month what was wrong with the Ferrari car, replied: "Everything."

That is the problem with Ferrari. There is most room for improvement when it comes to their thirsty power unit but nor are they where they want to be with their chassis or their aerodynamics. And not even the presence of two world championship drivers in their team can cover over the many cracks.

In six years in charge, Domenicali won just one trophy; the constructors' title in 2008. Alonso, making the most of a moderate car, went close to winning the drivers' championship in 2010 and 2012 but lost out to Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel on both occasions. Last year Red Bull completely dominated both championships as Ferrari suffered from a lack of in-season development. A frustrated Di Montezemolo subsequently described himself as "tired" of his team's failure to win a world title.

Ferrari brought in the highly rated Lotus technical director James Allison in 2013, but that was in the second half of the season and Allison's fingerprints will not really appear on the car until 2015. Encouragingly, the team looked solid in pre-season testing, but it is another works team, Mercedes, who have made all the running in the early races.

Di Montezemolo clearly will be more hands-on in future. "I will help him [Mattiacci]," said the president. "I will do like I did in the past. I will stay closer, I'll spend more time on it.

"The first person at being not satisfied at the moment is me, but don't worry, I'm putting myself on the line. Mattiacci is the right choice, we'll get back to winning ways very soon."

He added: "I've decided to go for a young manager I strongly believe in, and on a person from the Ferrari family, thus avoiding me going around the world looking for some mercenary. Let's look ahead. We all must roll up our sleeves in order to be competitive again."

But Alonso, who angered the team with his critical comments last year, sounds as if he would be much happier with Domenicali still in charge. He said here on Thursday: "Stefano is a great man. We ski together on the first of January in the mountains in Italy and we still have a close relationship. We've been talking all week long, which will continue because we've known each other for many years.

"As a team principal he made good choices, did good things. Unfortunately we missed opportunities in 2010 and 2012, and another in 2008 with Felipe [Massa]. Otherwise he could have had three championships in his pocket."